News

Best of NM 2012 Foodies, hop-heads and social butterflies agree: Grand Traverse County is the place to be -- and nothing is more evident than the growing number of restaurants, breweries and festivals popping up across its 600+ square aces. Here is the Best of the Best of where to go and what to do in Grand Traverse.

Best of NM 2012 Hair Salon: Bayside Salon Window displays: Lima Bean Place to pamper your pet: SunDog Boarding Kennel Art gallery: Michigan Artist Gallery Stylish resale shop: Jaffes Store staff: Lima Bean Independent apparel: Lima Bean;Cotton Seed TIE Men’s store: Bahle’s.

Best of NM 2012 If ever you wanted to increase flexibility, strengthen your core, find inner balance or just find an activity that doesn’t murder your joints, then yoga is probably the best go-to activity. While there are numerous teachers, clinics and businesses all over the region to help you with all of the above, two instructors stand out as among the best.

Best of NM 2012 Morris started in the fitness industry in 2002 working as a trainer for Curves International. Around that time, she had lost a significant amount of weight, but she still felt like the same insecure person. At the age of 35, along with her 16-year-old daughter Adrian, Morris took her first belly dance class (Middle Eastern dance).

Best of NM 2012 Despite announcing her move over a month earlier, Fairbanks was voted “Best Broadcast Journalist,” receiving an overwhelming number of votes. Along with hundreds of emails, Facebook posts and phone calls, Northern Michigan wanted to show the former evening news anchor of TV 7&4 just how much they would miss her.

Features Ross Boissoneau

Fiery fretwork will be all the rage in Benzie County this week, with two concerts featuring seven guitarists.

First up is the California Guitar Trio, the acclaimed virtuoso group that encompasses surf rock, classical, new age, folk and progressive rock elements. The CGT will be performing at Crystal Mountain’s Conference Center, Tuesday.

Opening the show will be the Younce Guitar Duo, the father and son duo profiled in the Express Jan. 30.

Features Patrick Sullivan Prosecutors say couple endangered an infant and a four-year-old in a bid to get away from the cops.  They were a couple of desperadoes, at least as described in court files: Running from police at a hundred miles per hour, along rural highways and through quiet villages, he unwilling to go back to prison, and she willing to do whatever it took to help him.

Features Patrick Sullivan First off, he made sure he didn’t have all sorts of electronics on standby all of the time around his house. He also believes in using a timer on his water heater and he uses an outdoor wood heater to heat water during the winter, since that is already heating his house.

Features Kristi Kurjan When someone donates to a charitable organization, that money is appreciated and put to work.

Now, imagine what would happen if that money was double, tripled, quadrupled.

Or multiplied by 100. That’s the rationale behind “100 Women Who Care,” a group of women who meet four times a year, and in less than an hour raise over $10,000 for a local cause.

Letters

Hold all acccountable

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying something like “Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”

In 2001 after 9/11, Bush said more than once, paraphrased here because his actual statements are now obscured, “We will not change anything due to these attacks – doing so would be giving in to terrorists.”

Yet the so-called ‘Patriot’ Act and related laws say and do otherwise – see aclu.org/reform-patriot-act for details.

I recall a work manager saying who cares about electronic privacy – if you have nothing to hide then why worry about it!

Imagine the Nazis being able to use the snooping that we allow today – and remember our Declaration of Independence...

Features Patrick Sullivan

He left to go to college and law school and begin a career and when he decided to move back to his hometown in the mid- 1990s, he was worried about what he was getting himself into. Would this be the same backward place he remembered from his youth? Or was Northern Michigan somehow getting more progressive?

Soon after he moved back there was a news story about a cross burning in Grawn and Ringsmuth thought his worst fears about coming home were coming true...

Letters

Academic performance

One teacher in Troy recently went before the board of education to explain the 20 percent increase in scores across all of her students for the first half of the year. Her innovative ideas involve three areas: classroom structure, embedded writing in her curriculum and student nutrition.

As part of a three-year longitudinal study it turns out that she has been able to simulate same gender effect in a mixed student class room by original vertical and horizontal placement of students in the classroom...

Features Rick Coates Northern Michigan is rooted in Irish heritage. Just look at some of the county names: Antrim, Emmet, Wexford, Roscommon and Crawford all have Irish roots to them.

So this time of the year, our region is loaded with events that pay tribute to the people who settled this region in the late 1800’s. Here is an overview of events happening throughout Northern Michigan...

Features Rick Coates The term “Silent Disco” seems more like an oxymoron than the latest entertainment craze. Yet crowds have been jamming the Silent Disco tent at several festivals in the area ever since Porterhouse Productions introduced the concept to the region a couple of years ago at the Traverse City Microbrew & Music Festival.

Features Patrick Sullivan The mystery of Adamczyk’s disappearance is almost rivaled by the mysteriousness of the legal case into his death. Police and prosecutors have said little about the case, though recent filings in Manistee County Circuit Court shed some light on what’s going on in the investigation.